Nobody in football knows how to cause a stir quite like Jose Mourinho, who made a shock move to Turkey this summer to take charge of Fenerbahce.
‘The Special One’ will forever be the game’s biggest cult of personality. When he’s not winning trophies, he’s winning games, and if he can’t do that, he’s controlling the narrative some other way.
From touchline meltdowns to peculiar press conferences, we’ve looked at Mourinho’s maddest moments so far in Turkey.
Rant about corruption
Following a 3-2 win away at Trabzonspor, Mourinho went on a lengthy rant in his post-match press conference, shooting from the hip about everything from VAR to how Turkish football is corrupt.
Words on a page don’t do this one justice. You need to seek out the clip of him going off on one for eight minutes, but some highlights include: “I blame the Fenerbahce board, they only told me half of what was going on in here [Galatasaray’s corruption]. If they had told me everything, I wouldn’t have come.”
Claiming ‘nobody wants to watch the Turkish league abroad’ and that ‘it’s too grey. It’s too dark, [it] smells bad’.
Red card vs Man Utd
From the moment his Fenerbahce side were drawn to host Manchester United in the Europa League league phase, you just knew to expect fireworks.
A dysfunctional United side led in Istanbul, but were far from convincing as Mourinho’s Fenerbahce piled pressure onto his former employers. They eventually cracked as Fener grabbed a late equaliser, but not without Mourinho being sent off for annoying the fourth official with protests all evening.
So inevitable.
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Inventing a new way to be booked
Not content with his usual bookings for dissent or other moaning, Mourinho got creative in getting a yellow card back in September.
An absolute master when it comes to sh*thousery and generally being a nuisance, the Portuguese coach refused to attend a (mandatory) post-match presser following a defeat to Galatasaray.
After being booked for doing so, Mourinho then gaslighted everyone by claiming he was made to wait over 70 minutes to talk to the media because Gala manager Okan Buruk had taken so long: “The coach who plays away goes first, it’s normal, to be free. But there are limits!
“I waited 70 minutes and even after that I couldn’t go, because his press conference continued. I can’t wait 70, 75 or 80 minutes for a press conference.”
Failed knee-slide
You won’t see a better goal celebration this year, or perhaps even next year.
READ: We’re delighted to announce that Jose Mourinho has produced 2024’s best goal celebration
Tackled by his own player
Getting a little too eager on the training pitch, Mourinho found himself too involved in a training session as he made his way around a small-sided pitch.
All managers are control freaks, but perhaps this was karma for not letting loose a little bit. Mourinho – who hadn’t worn a different colour to one of the teams – ended up taking a tumble as he was taken out by one of his own players.
Thankfully, he saw the funny side of it. Sharing the clip on Instagram, he wrote: “Lesson to young coaches ‘never wear same colour as players’… They can pass you the ball… Or kick you from behind.”
Plenty of footballers who have played under Mourinho took to the comments to laugh at their former boss. Brave.
